Sketches of accused in Govind Pansare murder released

The sketches of accused for the murder of 82-year-old CPI leader Govind Pansare are based on the statement of five eyewitnesses and CCTV footage from nearby school

The Special Investigation team (SIT) formed by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe the murder of 82-year-old CPI leader Govind Pansare has released the sketch of the suspect based on the statement of eyewitnesses and CCTV footage from a nearby school. It took a week for a Kolhapur-based artist and a CID expert to prepare the sketch.On February 16, at around 9.15 am, Govind, along with his wife Uma (72), were shot by two men when they were returning from their morning walk, 50 feet away from their home Sagar Mahal.

In April this year, the Pansare murder case was transferred to SIT, headed by Additional Director General of Police Sanjay Kumar, CID. Kumar said, “The sketches have been prepared based on the statements of five eyewitnesses. According to the CCTV footage, a similar bike was found passing Pansare’s house multiple times between 7.57 am and 9.44 am on February 16. The couple was gunned down between 9 am and 9.44 am on the pretext of asking for an address.”

Another senior officer, on condition of anonymity, said, “A team of eight officers will take the investigation ahead. Saraswati Chunekar Vidyamandir, which is 100 feet from the Pansare residence, has two CCTV cameras installed in the premises, which captures the L-shaped road. The sketches have been shown to Pansare's wife, but she is not in the right frame of mind to comment. The images are not of high resolution.

So we plan to send the footage to a Pune-based cinematography school. The accused fled in the direction of Subhash Nagar and there are chances they are in Goa or Karnataka. We have collected over 102 CCTV cameras footages from the area as well as from the toll post.”